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Just days after President Obama signed a law giving billions of dollars to develop electronic health records, a university technology professor submitted a paper showing that he was able to uncover tens of thousands of medical files containing names, addresses and Social Security numbers for patients seeking treatment for conditions ranging from AIDS to mental health problems. Using peer-to-peer applications, which computer users download to share files, most commonly music and movies, M. Eric Johnson, director of the Center for Digital Strategies at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., was able to access electronic medical records on computers that had the peer-to-peer programs stored on their hard drives. The medical files contained detailed personal data on physical and mental diagnoses, which a hacker could use to not only embarrass a patient but also to commit medical fraud. One of the largest stashes of medical data Johnson discovered during two weeks of research he conducted in January was a database containing two spreadsheets from a hospital he declined to identify. The files contained records on 20,000 patients, which included names, Social Security numbers, insurance carriers and codes for diagnoses. The codes identified by name four patients infected with AIDS, the mental illnesses that 201 others were diagnosed as having and cancer findings for 326 patients. Data also included links to four major hospitals and 355 insurance carriers that provided health coverage to 4,029 employers and 266 doctors.

A U.S. appeals court on Friday denied a bid by the cable industry to overrule privacy rules that make it more difficult for them to share subscribers' personal information with other parties. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied a petition by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, which argued that federal rules on telecom carriers' use of customer data violated free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution, federal law or both. At issue are rules set by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission that mandate telecommunications carriers must get an "opt-in" before disclosing customers' information to a carrier's joint venture business partner or an independent contractor.

One of the nation's largest time-share companies is going to be shelling out nearly a $1 million for making phone calls to people on the national "Do Not Call" list, federal regulators said Tuesday. Westgate Resorts, based in Orlando, Fla., was named in a complaint filed on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission. The agency alleged that Westgate and two other companies placed thousands of telemarketing calls to people on the list. The FTC says Westgate has agreed to pay $900,000 to settle the charges. The commission on Tuesday also announced a $275,000 settlement with another Florida-based travel company, Accumen Management Services Inc., and its subsidiary, All in One Vacation Club, LLC. The company made telemarketing calls to consumers who had filled out entry forms for a sweepstakes to win vacation packages. Many of those called, the FTC said, were on the Do Not Call registry and did not agree to receive the telemarketing pitches for timeshares and vacation getaways. In the case of Westgate, the agency received several thousand complaints from consumers. The commission said Westgate bought phone numbers from an Internet-based lead generator that collected contact information in connection with offerings on its Brandarama.com web site. The two other companies named in the Westgate complaint are: Central Florida Investments Inc., and CFI Sales and Marketing, LLC., which both did telemarketing for Westgate. The combined fines of $1.17 million will go to the U.S. Treasury. Calls to Westgate and Accumen seeking comment were not immediately returned. The latest enforcement actions bring to 40 the number of Do Not Call cases the government has filed against companies since the registry began in June 2003. The biggest case to date involved satellite television provider DirecTV Inc., which paid a $5.3 million settlement. More than 167 million phone numbers have been placed on the Do Not Call registry.

PCI - better than nothing, but still vastly inadequate. - Karl The Heartland Payment Systems and Network Solutions data breaches have thrust the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) into the spotlight, raising the question: Does PCI compliance help in the fight against fraud? David Taylor, founder of PCI Knowledge Base, recently administered new research on PCI compliance, and in an exclusive interview he discusses: Goods news - and not-so-good-news - about PCI compliance; Unique PCI challenges for merchants and banking institutions alike; What needs to be done to raise awareness of PCI compliance. Taylor founded the PCI Knowledge Base and before that the PCI Alliance. He worked with many leading edge companies as an analyst for Gartner for 14 years. The PCI Knowledge Base is a research community that shares information and knowledge to help merchants, banks and other organizations achieve PCI compliance.

The Heartland Payment Systems and Network Solutions data breaches have thrust the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) into the spotlight, raising the question: Does PCI compliance help in the fight against fraud? David Taylor, founder of PCI Knowledge Base, recently administered new research on PCI compliance, and in an exclusive interview he discusses: Goods news - and not-so-good-news - about PCI compliance; Unique PCI challenges for merchants and banking institutions alike; What needs to be done to raise awareness of PCI compliance. Taylor founded the PCI Knowledge Base and before that the PCI Alliance. He worked with many leading edge companies as an analyst for Gartner for 14 years. The PCI Knowledge Base is a research community that shares information and knowledge to help merchants, banks and other organizations achieve PCI compliance.

"Social behavior is not a new concept - it simply implies living and working in a community instead of being isolated. What's new is the emergence of platforms to create a setting and values that are intrinsic to a community. Values such as: sharing of ideas and expertise in real-time, establish

At a minimum, we need some sort of framework to act as a guide for protecting the privacy of various types of personally identifiable data that we generate, store or consume and share with others.
The following section introduces the Generally Accepted Privacy Principles (GAPP), developed by the A

"Consumers are often oblivious to the fact that some businesses share a great deal of their personal information with other businesses who deliver targeted behavioral advertising, says Anzen analysts Megan Brister and Jordan Prokopy. In an e-mail interview with IT Business Edge editor Lora Bentley, Brister and Prokopy say most consumers are just not aware of the business practices of companies that use personal information for profit. The Federal Trade Commission recently held meetings with consumer and privacy advocates, business and government leaders to discuss privacy, regulatory, and business issues of online behavioral advertising. It plans plan to ramp up efforts to protect consumers and possibly push for tougher legislation to protect consumers. One issue, Brister and Prokopy say, is the lack of transparency by companies that engage in behavioral advertising. These companies have been slow to adopt clear data-management policies and even when they do have policies, they are often written in language that is difficult to understand. Fortunately for consumers, some type of regulation appears to be on the way. The FTC appears eager to penalize businesses who lack transparency regardless of whether the consumer actually experienced any real negative effects as a result, Brister and Prokopy say."

"* To pay all costs tied to administration of settlement * To pay class members' attorney costs Dec 21 (Reuters) - Credit card processor Heartland Payment Systems Inc (HPY.N) said it would settle consumer cardholder class actions tied to claims arising from breach of its system by cyber thieves, and pay up to $2.4 million to class members submitting valid claims. Heartland agreed to pay a minimum of $1 million to class members and take up settlement-related administration costs, including up to $1.5 million for the cost of notice to the settling class. The company will pay up to $760,000 of the costs of attorneys representing the class members. Heartland said it could terminate the deal if costs of notice exceeded $1.5 million, or if it received more than 2,500 requests for exclusion from the settlement class. The deal settles all intrusion-related proceedings by consumers who used the payment cards between Dec. 6, 2007 and Dec. 31, 2008, including those who may allege to have suffered losses, the company said in a statement. Heartland, which agreed to pay $3.6 million last week to settle claims with American Express Co (AXP.N) related to the criminal breach, reported in January this year that cyber thieves hacked its payment system and stole credit card information. Shares of the New Jersey-based company were down 18 cents at $13.29 Monday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. "

"A UN watchdog has called for a new international agreement on privacy following a review of the expanding global array of surveillance measures and databases advanced by governments in the cause of counter-terrorism. The special rapporteur on human rights, Martin Scheinin, said the UN should create a "a global declaration on data protection and data privacy" in response. His report, delivered to the UN's Human Rights Council, describes the expansion of watchlists, border checks, financial data sharing, interception of communications, biometrics and ID registers in recent years. "States no longer limit exceptional surveillance schemes to combating terrorism and instead make these surveillance powers available for all purposes," he added."

"Iconix Brand Group, Inc. will pay a $250,000 civil penalty to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the FTC's COPPA Rule by knowingly collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children online without first obtaining their parents' permission. Iconix owns, licenses, and markets - both offline and online - several popular apparel brands that appeal to children and teens, including Mudd, Candie's, Bongo, and OP. Iconix required consumers on many of its brand-specific Web sites to provide personal information, such as full name, e-mail address, zip code, and in some cases mailing address, gender, and phone number - as well as date of birth - in order to receive brand updates, enter sweepstakes contests, and participate in interactive brand-awareness campaigns and other Web site features. Since 2006, Iconix knowingly collected and stored personal information from approximately 1,000 children without first notifying their parents or obtaining parental consent, according to the FTC's complaint. On one Web site, MyMuddWorld.com, Iconix also enabled girls to publicly share personal stories and photos online, according to the complaint. "Companies must provide parents with the opportunity to say 'no thanks' to the collection and disclosure of their children's personal information," said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. "Children's privacy is paramount, and Iconix really missed the boat by denying parents control over their kids' information online.""

Do you know what your data did last night? Almost none of more than 27 million people who took the RealAge quiz realized that their personal health data was sold to drug companies, who in turned used that information for targeted e-mail marketing campaigns. There's a basic consumer protection principle at work here, and it's the concept of "unfair and deceptive" trade practices. Basically, a company shouldn't be able to say one thing and do another: sell used goods as new, lie on ingredients lists, advertise prices that aren't generally available, claim features that don't exist, and so on. RealAge's privacy policy doesn't mention anything about selling data to drug companies, but buried in its 2,400 words, it does say that "we will share your personal data with third parties to fulfill the services that you have asked us to provide to you." They maintain that when you join the website, you consent to receiving pharmaceutical company spam. But since that isn't spelled out, it's not really informed consent. That's deceptive. Cloud computing is another technology where users entrust their data to service providers. Salesforce.com, Gmail, and Google Docs are examples; your data isn't on your computer -- it's out in the "cloud" somewhere -- and you access it from your web browser. Cloud computing has significant benefits for customers and huge profit potential for providers. It's one of the fastest growing IT market segments -- 69% of Americans now use some sort of cloud computing services -- but the business is rife with shady, if not outright deceptive, advertising.

Lawmakers took aim at privacy practices of cable and Internet providers Thursday at a House subcommittee hearing, laying the groundwork for the introduction of legislation that could restrict companies' ability to target ads at consumers online. The focus of the hearing was on new efforts by Internet providers to collect and share data on consumers' behavior to target online advertising and by cable companies to target ads at subscribers via their set-top boxes. Lawmakers are concerned about consumer privacy as cable, phone and Internet companies experiment with Internet-based technologies that pinpoint advertising to consumers in new and more accurate ways. Legislation to impose tougher privacy rules could be coming later this summer.

A typical lost or stolen laptop costs employers $49,246, mostly due to the value of the missing intellectual property or other sensitive data, according to an Intel-commissioned study made public Wednesday. "It is the information age, and employees are carrying more information on their laptops than ever before," according to an analysis done for Intel by the Michigan-based Ponemon Institute, which studies organizational data-management practices. "With each lost laptop there is the risk that sensitive data about customers, employees and business operations will end up in the wrong hands." The five-month study examined 138 laptop-loss cases suffered over a recent 12-month period by 29 organizations, mostly businesses but also a few government agencies. It said laptops frequently are lost or stolen at airports, conferences and in taxis, rental cars and hotels. About 80 percent of the typical cost - or a little more than $39,000 - was attributed to what the report called a data breach, which can involve everything from hard-to-replace company information to data on individuals. Companies then often incur major expenses to prevent others from misusing the data. Lost intellectual property added nearly $5,000 more to the average cost. The rest of the estimated expense was associated with such things as investigative costs, lost productivity and replacing the laptop. Larry Ponemon, the institute's chairman and Advertisement founder, said he came up with the cost figure based on his discussions with the employers who lost the laptops. When he later shared his findings with the companies and government agencies, he said, some of their executives expressed surprise at the size of the average loss. But he noted that one of the employers thought the amount could have been even higher.

There was no way I was ever going to convince my parents that Jimi Hendrix's music was good. More than anything, the youth culture was defined by its music. The chasm it created was called "the generation gap" a metaphor for the ideological differences that separated us. There is a new generation gap. It's not defined through music or politics or fashion, those ideas are shared much more among the generations than before. This time it's about privacy. My generation came of age thinking about "1984", the looming threat of "Big Brother" watching over all of us all of the time. It was the government or some group which would monitor all of our actions, know all our habits: who we associate with, what we watch, what buy. 1984 came and went. Nothing like "Big Brother" happened unless you count Apple computer's historic "Big Brother" commercial which ends with the slogan: "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like "1984". They were right - 2009 is. Personal details used to be considered private. We were careful about who knew what about us and certainly didn't post pictures of our friends, families and fantasies for all to see. Privacy does not seem to be valued anymore. Giving up one's privacy has become a rite of passage. It's what you leave at the portal when you sign up for any of the social networking sites on the internet. The sites are free - as long as you don't calculate the value of your identity, demographics, viewing and buying habits to advertisers. This isn't new, the Nielsen Ratings service has been assembling viewer information since the 1950s for television advertisers, but its methods were primitive in comparison to the two way constant information gathering that's done on the internet. In March 2009, Google initiated the use of "behavioral targeting", which uses information collected on someone's web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to selec

As the impact of digital advertising on consumer privacy comes under scrutiny, AT&T is taking a stance in support of stricter standards. Rep. Rick Boucher (D., Va.), chairman of the subcommittee, said in an interview Wednesday that a statute is needed to regulate how companies collect, share and use data on consumers' behavior in targeting online advertising. While ad targeting on the Web has been at the forefront of privacy advocates' concerns, worries are growing about other media, ranging from mobile phones to emerging TV technologies. To sell marketers targeted ads, technology and media companies collect data about customers, ranging from the Web sites they visit to the neighborhoods they live in to the TV shows they watch. Marketers often will pay a premium for this form of advertising because it allows them to show their ads to consumers who are likelier to buy their products or services. "Pitfalls arise because behavioral advertising in its current forms is largely invisible to consumers," says Dorothy Attwood, AT&T's senior vice president of public policy and chief privacy officer, in prepared testimony she is expected to deliver at the hearing of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet. Her statement says consumers don't fully understand that their online activity is used to create detailed profiles of them. Internet and other media companies say the data they use to target ads are anonymous and can't be traced to individual consumers. AT&T plans to argue that consumers should have "full and complete" notice of what information is collected about them and how it is used and protected, and should have tools that let them determine whether their Web activities are being tracked. The company says it won't use consumer information for online behavioral advertising unless it first obtains consent from the consumers involved. AT&T's stance contrasts with the position taken by most big Internet companies and industry trade grou

There is an old axiom in marketing circles that it costs more money to acquire new customers than to retain and service your old ones. In this precarious financial environment, the focus for many companies is now on keeping the existing customers satisfied, rather than worrying only about adding new ones to the fold. Since the business environment has slowed for now, showing your clients additional "value added" services rather than simply a lower price, for example, will be critical. Companies should be taking an introspective look for differentiating factors in the areas of security and privacy "value," and how they can leverage what they uncover - a competitive advantage. How can an organization best position their privacy and security programs to be used as a competitive advantage? First, of course, you need to ensure that your privacy and security program is robust, well-tested, formally documented and meets or exceeds whatever legislation that your company is subject to or regulated against. It is also important to give your customers a point of reference about the validity of your programs so they easily translate the value into a currency they recognize. Further, you should take advantage of any other internal and external audits, assessments and oversights that you can reasonably share with external parties by crafting the results of these documents as a consumable for external parties. It has been my experience that clients, especially their security teams, really appreciate this effort. Another innovative way to deliver a competitive advantage today is in the realm of vendor management. This discipline is quickly becoming an increasingly high-profile topic of discussion and interest between clients, customers and their service providers. The onus is on you anyway to demonstrate oversight of your third-party service provider(s). This is where you should also have the "value add" conversation and validate why your clients placed their trus

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The Nature of the Problem Identity theft has been referred to by some as the crime of the new millennium. It can be accomplished anonymously, easily, with a variety of means, and the impact upon the victim can be devastating. Identity theft is simply the theft of identity information such as a name, date of birth, Social Security number (SSN), or a credit card number. The mundane activities of a typical consumer during the course of a regular day may provide tremendous opportunities for an identity thief: purchasing gasoline, meals, clothes, or tickets to an athletic event; renting a car, a video, or home-improvement tools; purchasing gifts or trading stock on-line; receiving mail; or taking out the garbage or recycling. Any activity in which identity information is shared or made available to others creates an opportunity for identity theft. It is estimated that identity theft has become the fastest-growing financial crime in America and perhaps the fastest-growing crime of any kind in our society. Identity Theft: Is There Another You?: Joint hearing before the House Subcomms. on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection, and on Finance and Hazardous Materials, of the Comm. on Commerce, 106th Cong. 16 (1999) (testimony of Rep. John B. Shadegg). The illegal use of identity information has increased exponentially in recent years. In fiscal year 1999 alone, the Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) Fraud Hotline received approximately 62,000 allegations involving SSN misuse. The widespread use of SSNs as identifiers has reduced their security and increased the likelihood that they will be the object of identity theft. The expansion and popularity of the Internet to effect commercial transactions has increased the opportunities to commit crimes involving identity theft. The expansion and popularity of the Internet to post official information for the benefit of citizens and customers has also increased opportunities to obtain

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One of the more interesting panel discussions at the IDC Cloud Computing Forum on Feb 18th in San Francisco was about managing the complexities of security, privacy and compliance in the Cloud. The simple answer according to panelists Carolyn Lawson, CIO of California Public Utilities Commission, and Michael Mucha, CISO of Stanford Hospital and Clinics is "it ain't easy!" "Both of us, in government and in health, are on the front-lines," Lawson proclaimed. "Article 1 of the California Constitution guarantees an individual's right to privacy and if I violate that I've violated a public trust. That's a level of responsibility that most computer security people don't have to face. If I violate that trust I can end up in jail or hauled before the legislature," she said. "Of course, these days with the turmoil in the legislature, she joked, "the former may be preferable to the later." Stanford's Mucha said that his security infrastructure was built on a two-tiered approach using identity management and enterprise access control. Mucha said that the movement to computerize heath records nationwide was moving along in fits and starts, as shown by proposed systems likeMicrosoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s Health Vault and Google (NSDQ: GOOG)'s Personal Health Record. "The key problem is who is going to pay for the computerized of health records. It's not as much of a problem at Stanford as it is at a lot of smaller hospitals, but it's still a huge problem." Mucha said that from his perspective security service providers in the cloud and elsewhere are dealing with a shrinking security parameter or fence, which is progressing from filing cabinets, to devices, to files, and finally to the individual, who under the latest Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy rules has certain rights, including rights to access and amend their health information and to obtain a record of when and why their Protected Health Information (PHI) record has bee

The row over the changes Facebook made to its terms has thrown the light on the rights people surrender when they sign up to use a website. It is likely though that until the row over Facebook's Terms and Conditions went public, few people knew what rights sites claim over the content that their members upload and share. "Less than 25% of users are making a specific point of going to the privacy settings and making changes," said Simon Davies, head of digital rights group Privacy International. Most, he said, are so keen to get using a site after registering that they do not take time to learn what will happen to any data that they are surrendering. Only later do they go back and adjust what happens to their data. "A lot of sites do have strong privacy controls," said Mr Davies. Tweaking these settings can help cut down on how much of a person's data is distributed. "It can make a difference," said Mr Davies, "particularly if the default is set in terms of maximum information flow." Blogger Amanda French looked through the pages where sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube and others spelled out their policies with regard to the data that members upload. Although the wording was different, she found that sites such as MySpace, Yahoo, Google and Twitter explicitly backed away from claiming ownership over uploaded content. A brief survey of Europe's Top 5 social sites found a similar situation. The text of the terms available on the UK sites of Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, Friends Reunited and Windows Live all back away from claiming ownership. By contrast, she wrote, the changes Facebook made to its terms were "extraordinarily grabby and arrogant".

Mixed receptionThe state hopes changes to Massachusetts' data privacy regulation plan will calm business community fears over the cost of the new controls, but watchers of the process say the government may have made things worse. One thing seems certain: the recent changes aren't likely to be the last word on regulating sensitive data in the Bay State. The regulations mandate all "personal information" belonging to Massachusetts residents be encrypted whenever it is stored on portable devices, transmitted wirelessly or shared on public networks. Changes enacted just in time to beat a deadline of Thursday, Feb. 12, pushed the effective date back eight months, from May 1 to Jan. 1, 2010. They also removed a requirement that businesses certify third-party vendors' compliance. The latter move was aimed to address an issue raised in a public hearing with business leaders held Jan. 15 at the State House. The change was designed to make the third-party regulations more adaptable to companies of various sizes and business models, said Massachusetts Consumer Affairs undersecretary Daniel Crane.